PRESS RELEASE
Attacked Journalists Deserve Their Day In Court
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
March 3, 2008
CONTACT: ACLU National, (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org
William Ramírez, ACLU of Puerto Rico, (787) 250-4410; aclupr@prtc.net
SAN JUAN, PR - The American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday will
ask a federal appeals court
to allow a case brought by journalists who were kicked, punched and pepper
sprayed by FBI
agents to move forward. The ACLU will ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
First Circuit to
reverse an earlier decision by the district court that sided with the FBI agents
and ignored
important constitutional issues raised by the journalists.
On November 5, 2007, the ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of the journalists, asserting that the FBI agents had violated their First Amendment right to gather news and their Fourth Amendment right to be free from excessive force. The ACLU’s lawsuit asserts that the FBI agents prevented the journalists from gathering the news by, among other things, punching, shoving, and kicking them, spraying pepper spray in their faces, covering the lenses of their camera, and pointing an automatic rifle at one of the journalists.
WHAT:
Oral arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit brought by the ACLU on behalf of several
reporters who
were kicked, punched and pepper sprayed by FBI agents
WHO:
Catherine Crump and Aden Fine of the ACLU First Amendment Working Group, William
Ramirez
and Josue Gonzalez of the ACLU of Puerto Rico and Nora Vargas-Acosta will appear
before circuit
judges Sandra Lynch, Bruce Selya and Juan Torruella of the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the First
Circuit. The Reporters’ Committee for Freedom of the Press has filed
an amicus brief in the case
WHEN:
Wednesday, March 5, 2008 at 9:30 a.m. EST
WHERE:
United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
Jose V. Toledo Courthouse
300 Recinto Sur Street, 5th Floor
San Juan, Puerto Rico
The ACLU’s brief and other related documents are available online here: www.aclu.org/freespeech/censorship/34007res20071105.html
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